Tampa, Fla.-based Phillips Development & Realty (PDR) and Warwick, R.I.-based Picerne Real Estate Group have launched a joint venture under the name Phillips-Picerne Properties, LLC. The venture will utilize their combined development capabilities to target new multifamily development and repositioning opportunities across the country.

Executives from both companies use the word “synergistic” to describe the partnership. While PDR’s expertise is directed at site selection, creative financing and pre-development, Picerne will be able to complement those strengths with its construction and property management focus. “We’ll work the front end of the development cycle and then feed into their machine for construction and the lease-up stabilization of the property,” PDR COO Kevin Johnston tells MHN. “Typically we’d have to go out and find a third-party construction firm. Now, Picerne will already be imbedded in that process.”

The team expects to be highly competitive in the national multifamily sector, and has already begun pursuing Class A projects. The 344-unit Research Park Apartments in Durham, N.C. is already in the works, as well as the 388-unit Kemah Apartments in Kemah, Texas—with both projects in the pre-development stage.